Steel City Daleks
by Alix Cohen
Summary: Episode 2. The Doctor encounters an old foe, and Lindsay learns some important things about herself.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: In this story, I am going to follow the unwritten rule of Dalek stories: mention the Daleks in the title, then introduce them at the first cliffhanger as if they're a total surprise. Seriously, this happened all the time in the classic show, and once in Nine's run the Daleks showed up in the teaser for a two-parter even though they WERE the cliffhanger and they weren't even in the title!

Okay, rant over. On to the story. Parts of this really happened at my school. Sadly, neither the Daleks nor the Doctor were involved.

* * *

"Here we are!" the Doctor announced as the TARDIS landed.

"Where?" Lindsay asked eagerly.

"Pittsburgh," the Doctor said, "in the year—" A little red light started blinking, just around the corner of the console. The Doctor studied it. "Now, according to this, we're in the year Common Era...twenty-fourteen."

2014. Lindsay counted to five before responding. "Uh...when I said _future_, I think I meant something a little...farther future?"

"So did I," said the Doctor. "But we've landed here, which means...which means something is very wrong here, something _she_ wants me to deal with right now." He glanced back at the console.

_She_ again! "Who is 'she'?" Lindsay asked. But the Doctor was already striding past her, pulling something out of his jacket as he opened the door and entered the classroom on the other side.

And stopped short, taking in the projector screen at the other end of the room, and the shocked faces watching his entrance.

* * *

They were watching _The Mind Robber_, Lindsay noted. Not her favorite serial; it had been fun the first time, but upon later viewing had lost its charm...yet somehow every episode had survived.

Distracted from the stunned silence in the rest of the room, she was surprised to find herself being hugged by a complete stranger.

She pushed him away, and he backed off apologetically. He was tall, thin, and nondescript, with sandy hair and glasses. "Sorry, Lindsay," he muttered. "I forgot..."

He knew her name. "Who are you?" she demanded.

"Sorry," he said again. "You haven't met me yet, but..." He glanced at the Doctor. "Can you explain it?" he asked.

"Maybe I can," said the Doctor. "It seems to me that you're someone from her future. Friend, classmate, romantic attachment? It's okay," he said to Lindsay, whose mouth was hanging open. "Happens all the time to time travelers; I keep meeting my wife in the wrong order. Well, I didn't find out she was my wife till quite recently; she wouldn't tell me until right before we got married, and anyway, what's your name?"

The question was directed at the boy, who smiled. "Russell Redmond," he replied. "And yes; I'm her boyfriend from the future."

"What-" Lindsay began. The rest of the thought was drowned out by a siren. The half-dozen students in the room left quickly, though one girl paused to pull a DVD from the player in the corner and took it with her.

Russell started to leave, then turned back and motioned at Lindsay and the Doctor. "Come on! We have to evacuate."

"Evacuate for what?" the Doctor asked as they followed Russell out of the classroom and into a nearby stairwell.

"Probably another bomb threat," Russell said calmly. "We've had eight this week." He shook his head. "This is the first one on a weekend, though." He led them down one flight and into a huge empty room with a vaulted ceiling and lots of little round tables.  
"How long have you been getting bomb threats?" the Doctor asked.

Lindsay thought she saw one of the tables slide out of their way. "Doctor?"

"Couple of weeks," Russell said. "They keep getting threats for the Cathedral—that's this building-and Chevron—that's the chemistry building up the hill."

The table moved again, and this time Lindsay thought she saw something metallic. "Doctor, that table!" Lindsay insisted as they pushed through revolving doors into sunlight.

"Not now, this is important!" the Doctor said, following Russell down worn stone steps to street level.

"But that is too..." Lindsay protested weakly. The Doctor wasn't listening...how to make him...aha. She stopped halfway down the stairs, got in character, took a breath...

"DOCTOR THERE'S A TABLE IN THERE THAT MOVED AND I SWEAR IT WAS WATCHING ME THERE'S SOMETHING IN THERE!"

For a split second she wondered if her accent hadn't been fake enough. Then he turned around. "Well, why didn't you say so? Let's go!" He dashed past her, up the stairs, and back into the Cathedral.

Lindsay felt drained, and climbed the stairs more slowly. Russell and a short overweight brunette girl caught up with her.

"You scream like a Companion," Russell joked, throwing an arm around her shoulders. Then he remembered, and withdrew. Lindsay found herself wishing he hadn't.

"I was going for Peri," she admitted. "_Never_ doing that again." She shook her head for emphasis, then glanced at Russell's friend. "Hi," said the other girl.

"Lindsay, this is Lily. She and you and I are...will be?...the board of the _Doctor Who_ Club here."

"Well, it's a good thing we'll have all this experience then," Lindsay replied. "Let's go catch up with the Doctor."

* * *

They found him kneeling on the floor, surrounded by chairs. "Evidence of a perception filter here," he muttered as they approached. "Smells like an external projector. If I could find that—" He crawled under a nearby table and promptly bumped his head. "Found it! Ow."

"Are you all right?" Lindsay asked, hurrying over. He didn't answer.

It was the box. He was holding a little gray box, and staring at it (Lindsay imagined it had bit him). "What is it?" Lindsay asked.

"Perception-filter projector," the Doctor replied, still staring at the box. "A perception filter fools the senses, tricks the mind into ignoring something in plain sight." He transferred the box to his left hand and touched one fingertip to his tongue. "And it was manufactured by Daleks."


	2. Chapter 2

"Daleks?" Lindsay echoed. "Here?"

Before the Doctor could respond, another voice interrupted him. "Excuse me, sir, but could you please evacuate the building?" Everyone turned to look at the police officer standing behind them.

The Doctor stood up, slipping the projector into a jacket pocket that looked much too small for it and producing a thin wallet, which he opened and showed the police officer, from another pocket. "Sorry I'm late, officer," he said. "I came as fast as I could."

The police officer studied the wallet and frowned. "I'm sorry, Inspector, but I really do have to ask you to leave. Once the campus K-9 units have finished clearing the building, you may conduct your own investigation." The Doctor nodded; at the mention of K-9, his eyes lit up.

Let's go, _Inspector_," Russell urged. "We don't want to take up any more of their time."

"Hm? Oh. Right. Let's go." The Doctor spun around and set off in a random direction. Lindsay, Lily, and Russell followed.

"You know when he said K-9, he meant real dogs, right?" Lindsay pointed out.

"Yes, of _course_ I know it's real dogs," the Doctor responded irritably. "Let's go this way." He darted into a stairwell, and everyone followed, just as three cell phones rang in unison.

Russell and Lily barely glanced at the identical text messages they had received; Lindsay scrolled through hers, puzzled. It read:

_PITT ENS ALERT: A general bomb threat has been issued for the Cathedral of Learning, location and time of threat not specified. Please evacuate the building. If safe to do so, please warn others of this message._

"How did I get this?" Lindsay asked. "I'm not—"

"No, but you will be," the Doctor called from the next floor up. "And your future self probably has the same phone number, so you both get the same alerts while you're here. Now come on, let's find the Daleks!"

* * *

On the thirty-fifth floor of the Cathedral, a lone Dalek stood in the wreckage of an office, examining a three-dimensional map of the building. A cluster of lights blinked near the bottom.

A second Dalek entered the office. "THE PREPARATIONS ARE COMPLETED. IS THE BUILDING CLEARED?"

"NO," said the first Dalek. "THERE ARE FOUR INTRUDERS IN THE EASTERN STAIRWELL. THEY MUST BE ELIMINATED FOR OUR PLAN TO PROCEED."

"I WILL INTERCEPT THEM AND EXTERMINATE THEM," said the second Dalek. It left the office, glided through the Honors College foyer, and disappeared into the stairwell, which no longer had a door.

* * *

Lily had asked to take a break on the sixth floor, and by the eighth, Lindsay and Russell were in earnest agreement. They collapsed on the stairs while the Doctor paced the landing, thinking aloud under his breath.

Lindsay's mind was racing as well. "But I can't be a student here! I'm going to Harvard."

"Yeah, you did mention that," said Russell, shaking his head. "Will mention. See, what you're going to tell me—last year—is—"

"Spoilers, Russell!" the Doctor shouted. "Don't tell her her future. And be quiet while I'm thinking!" He paced off again, still muttering.

Russell leaned closer to Lindsay and whispered, "Think about it. I already know you. How did that happen, if you never came to Pitt?"

Lindsay was stunned by the question. She racked her brain, looking for the Doctor in a similar situation. Before she could come up with anything, though, she received another shock: a gravelly mechanical voice somewhere above the landing she was sitting on.

"INTRUDERS DETECTED! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINAAATE!"

* * *

**A/N:** Of course the Doctor has dealt with this before; it's a stable time loop like those in "Blink" and "Time Crash." But those are, of course, New Series stories, and I can't think of any stable time loops from the Classic Series at the moment. If any of you can, it would be appreciated.


	3. Chapter 3

Lindsay and Russell scrambled to their feet, Lily close behind. "I thought Daleks couldn't climb stairs!" Lily said.

"Remembrance of the Daleks," Lindsay pointed out. "Seventh Doctor."

"Right," said the Doctor, not having heard a word they said. "Everyone behind me!" They crowded into the corner of the stairwell as the Dalek glided toward them and landed on the stairs.

Lindsay felt for Russell's hand and squeezed it, unable to look away. It was real, she thought. It was really a Dalek. But they shouldn't—they're fiction. Fictional_._ _But so's the Doctor_, argued the part of her brain that wasn't panicking. _You can't have one without the other._

The Doctor stepped forward, his sonic screwdriver visible but not threatening in one hand. "Hello, Dalek," he said, all the good cheer gone from his voice.

The Dalek's eyestalk twitched. It looked the Doctor up and down, and considered. Then it bellowed, "INTRUDERS MUST BE EXTERMINATED BEFORE COUNTDOWN COMMENCES!"

"I'm not any ordinary intruder," the Doctor said, taking another step forward. "D'you know who I am?"

The Dalek thought. "VISUAL IDENTIFICATION NEGATIVE," it replied, gliding back a couple of feet.

"Really?" the Doctor said. "You must be out of date, then. Look at you, you're-what, the last Emperor's model? You came straight here from the Game Station." He stepped forward again. "You don't even know what the Doctor looks like now." The Dalek moved back.

And here he is, standing up for us. Taking control. Like in the stories._ That's it,_ Lindsay told herself firmly. _They're not in real life; _I'm_ in the story. I'm part of the story, I have a role to play, and I'm going to play it._ Then she felt a little better, enough to tear her eyes away from the Dalek's eyestalk and notice that it was near the edge of the landing. "Look at the edge," she whispered to Russell and Lindsay, and wondered if the Doctor had had the same thought.

"YOU ARE THE DOCTOR?" the Dalek asked.

"Yes," the Doctor said, stepping forward. The confused Dalek moved back again. "I'm the Doctor, and I'm not going to let you exterminate my friends. And whatever it is you're doing in this building, I'm going to stop you." He took one last step forward; the Dalek moved back, and fell off the landing.

"MOTOR CONTROL IMPAIRED! MOTOR CONTROL IMPAIRED!"

The Dalek's screams were punctuated by clanks and thuds as it hit the stairs. It landed on the next landing down, breaking its firing arm, bounced off the wall, and continued down the rest of the flight, coming to rest on the floor below.

Lindsay was still staring. "Is it dead?" she asked.

"I don't think so," the Doctor said slowly, "but it won't be bothering us anymore." He started to climb the stairs again. "The next question is how many more there are."

Lindsay, Lily, and Russell followed him slowly. "There can't be many," Russell pointed out hopefully. "Otherwise they'd have attacked the school by now."

"Excellent thought, Russell," the Doctor said, turning to face them on the next landing. "Now, what do we know about their movements? You said there've been bomb threats for here and the chemistry building." Russell nodded.

"I hope there aren't many more," Lindsay confided to Lily. "It's not the same, seeing them on TV."

"I know," Lily said. "You were nervous before you left. You skipped a couple of classes in the Cathedral this week...now I get why."

Meanwhile the Doctor had begun pacing the landing between the eighth and ninth floors, putting two and two together in his head. "Cathedral...chemistry building...cathedral..._stop_ whispering, Lily...countdown...chemistry...oh. Oh no."

"What is it?" Lindsay asked.

"This building. It's rocket-shaped."

"Well, I never thought of it that way, but yeah," Russell said, then suddenly realized what the Doctor had thought of. "Oh shit."

"What?" Lindsay demanded. She had come to the same conclusion, and still thought it was ridiculous. "You can't launch a building into space!"

"They've done weirder things," Russell reminded her. "Dalek Invasion of Earth, First Doctor."

"So they've put a rocket engine in the Cathedral..." Lily repeated.

"...and they're flying it with fuel they made in Chevron," Russell continued.

"Everyone outside the building burns, everyone inside suffocates," the Doctor said. "Now! Lily, Russell, the Daleks need someplace to set up as a control room. Somewhere near the top of the building. Any thoughts as to where that might be?"

They thought. "There's the Honors College," Lily suggested. "Thirty-fifth floor. It's got a great view."

"That's it!" the Doctor shouted. "That's where they'll be." He turned around and took the stairs two at a time to the next floor, but was stopped by a shout from Lindsay.

"Doctor? Let's take the elevator."

* * *

A/N: Perhaps the first Dalek seemed to behave oddly. Don't forget that Davros never succeeded in eliminating fear.


	4. Chapter 4

Waiting for an elevator on the ninth floor also gave Lindsay time to ask the Doctor about his plan. Or at least what she suspected was a lack of a plan. "You're not just going to go up there and talk to them, are you?"

"It worked just now," the Doctor said nonchalantly.

"And that's what you're going to do? Shout at it till it falls down the stairs?"

The Doctor shrugged uncertainly. "Well, it sounds like a plan."

"And what do the rest of us do?" Lindsay demanded.

"The rest of you can...well...ah. Yes. You three go downstairs and get people to move away from the building. Just in case something, ah, happens." Lily nodded; Russell looked unconvinced.

Lindsay wasn't convinced either. "I'm coming with you."

"What?" said the Doctor. "No. You can't come. It's too dangerous."

"That's the point," Lindsay insisted. "You shouldn't go up there alone. And it's my job to come with you."

"Job? How is it your job?"

Russell thought he understood. "It's because you're the Companion, isn't it?"

"Exactly," Lindsay said. "We've all got our roles here; I'm the Companion, I go do dangerous things with the Doctor. You guys—" she waved at Lily and Russell—"are the locals; you do what the Doctor says." Russell opened his mouth to argue, but thought better of it.

"All part of the story. Does that make sense?" Lindsay asked.

This time the Doctor began to protest, but Russell cut him off. "Yes, it makes perfect sense. Come on, Lily, let's go warn people." He pressed the down button, just as the elevator going up arrived. The Doctor hopped in; Lindsay followed him, waving to Russell.

Then they were gone. "I love her," Russell said as he sat down to wait.

"I can see why," Lily replied.

* * *

"What was that?" the Doctor asked as soon as the elevator doors had closed.

"That was me reading the script," Lindsay replied, not looking at him out of something like elevator etiquette. "I know how these things work; you need someone to keep you out of trouble."

"You know, you shouldn't believe everything you see on television," the Doctor said. "That whole Master of the Land thing was completely inacc—wait, sorry, bad example, I..."

"Did you really put Jamie's face back wrong?" Lindsay laughed, then glanced at the Doctor and guessed that he didn't want to talk about it. "Ah. But Zoe helped you do it right. See, you need a companion."

The elevator stopped.

* * *

The Dalek in the office was staring at its map again. It was puzzled, if Daleks could be puzzled: its squadmate had disappeared from the schematic, and two of the other dots were moving upward rapidly in the nearer elevator shaft. Then they stopped at the command level. The Dalek glided out of the office to investigate, and was met by two humanoids.

"IDENTIFY," it said.

"I'm the Doctor," one of the humanoids said. "What're you doing in Pittsburgh, then?"

* * *

While the Dalek considered, Lindsay edged out of its field of vision, hoping to spot the stairs.

"IDENTIFICATION NEGATIVE," the Dalek finally said. "YOU CANNOT BE THE DOCTOR."

"Well, I am the Doctor, whether you like it or not," the Doctor said, "and you're not going to fly this building anywhere." He glanced at Lindsay, who was now directly behind the Dalek and headed for the stairs.

"WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?" the Dalek asked.

"I'm looking at the wreck you've made of this building," the Doctor retorted. "Lovely building; no need to do something like that."

The Dalek turned its dome to look at the ruined furniture. Lindsay ducked behind what remained of a chair. "THEY WOULD BE DESTROYED ANYWAY BY THE GRAVITATIONAL STRESSES OF LIFTOFF."

"You say liftoff," the Doctor echoed, taking a step towards the elevator and forcing the Dalek to turn to face him. Behind the Dalek, Lindsay darted into the stairwell.

_I am a Companion_, she reminded herself. _I help the Doctor, I back him up, I am /not scared/ unless the plot calls for it. The plot does_ not _call for it._

She stuck a hand out the doorway and waved at the Doctor, who was still talking to the Dalek. "Where are you lifting off to?"

"OUR SENSORS HAVE DETECTED A DALEK FLEET PASSING THROUGH THE ECLIPTIC PLANE OF THIS STAR SYSTEM," the Dalek said. While it talked, the Doctor began moving in the other direction, never breaking eye contact with it. "THIS BUILDING IS IDEALLY SHAPED TO SERVE AS TRANSPORT AND HAS HAD MINOR MODIFICATIONS MADE TO IT SO THAT IT CAN BE LAUNCHED INTO SPACE, WHERE WE SHALL REJOIN THE DALEK FLEET."

"It won't be your fleet, you know," the Doctor said. "Your fleet was destroyed two hundred thousand years in the future of this planet. Now, I'm not going to speculate as to how you escaped. But you're not going to escape again." He was almost to the stairwell. The Dalek paused.

"HOW DO YOU KNOW OF THIS EVENT?" it asked slowly.

"I told you how. I was there," said the Doctor, and he vanished into the stairwell as the Dalek made the connection and began shouting.

"THE DOCTOR IS HERE! THE ENEMY OF THE DALEKS! EXTERMINATE HIM! EXTERMINAAATE!" It fired; the blast took a chunk out of the door frame. Lindsay and the Doctor shrank back into the opposite corner.

The Dalek's shouts echoed into the stairwell. "It's coming," the Doctor whispered.

Lindsay rolled her eyes. "Now is not the time to state the obvious!" she snapped. "Can you get behind it?"

"Behind it?"

"Yeah, and—" Lindsay mimed pushing the Dalek down the stairs. The Doctor finally got it as the Dalek glided into the stairwell; as it turned its head back and forth, looking for them, he dashed behind it and started pushing. It resisted a moment, then began to slide toward the stairs.

"EXTERNAL FORCE DETECTED! MOTOR CONTROL IMPAIRED!"

Lindsay glanced at the Dalek, now waving its arms wildly, and at the Doctor's face. He needed help, she decided, and hurried over. Together they pushed the Dalek over the edge.

"EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINAAAAAA..."

Lindsay and the Doctor held onto the railings until the echoes of the Dalek's fall had died away. Then it was quiet for a while.

"Is it over?" Lindsay asked finally. _The Companion doesn't cry._

"Yes," the Doctor said.

Lindsay nodded. _The Companion doesn't cry._

* * *

They called all the elevators, and didn't speak to each other again until they were in one and descending. Lindsay no longer felt like a Companion. "Can I give you a hug?"

The Doctor smiled worriedly and opened his arms. Lindsay clung to him and cried, her face buried in his chest.


	5. Chapter 5

The elevator stopped at several empty floors on the way down; by the time it reached the first floor, Lindsay had dried her face, and the Doctor had buttoned his jacket to hide the wet spot on his shirt. They stepped out onto the balcony and were immediately confronted by two police officers and an impatient German shepherd.

The Doctor showed one of the officers his wallet. "I think you'll find that the threat's been taken care of," he said. "If I were you, I'd scour the stairwells and replace all the computers on the thirty-fifth floor-actually, you might need to replace the whole thirty-fifth floor—_but_, if you run into anything you can't handle, call this number." He produced a pen and paper from somewhere in his jacket, scribbled on the paper and handed it to the officer. "Ask for Dr. Jones and tell her the Doctor sent you. Now, I have some people to find."

He scanned the nearly-empty lawn and waved at Russell and Lily, who were just crossing the street towards them. They hurried up the steps to the balcony; Russell took one look at Lindsay's face and gave her a hug. She let him, briefly, then pulled away.

"So you got them?" Lily asked the Doctor.

"Of course we got them," the Doctor replied. "Those Daleks won't be doing anything now, except maybe for going to UNIT headquarters to be studied. And now _we_ shall be moving on."

"Want to come with us?" Lindsay asked Russell.

He shook his head. "That's okay. I want to make sure I'm here when you get back on Monday."

"Oh," Lindsay said. "Okay. Say hi to me for me. To myself for me?" She smiled wryly, but Russell could tell she was still upset.

"Will do," he said, carefully cheerful. "Safe travels!"

Lindsay nodded and headed back inside with the Doctor. At the TARDIS door, she found herself wilting again, and took a moment to lean against the door and breathe. No; wasn't helping. She needed more time to get used to this.

* * *

"I'm taking you back home," the Doctor announced as he danced around the TARDIS console, pulling levers and pressing buttons.

"How come?" Lindsay asked. And why now? she thought.

"Well, I thought since you...weren't feeling well...and the Daleks...that you'd..." The Doctor fumbled his words, and finally dropped them.

"What, that I'd had enough?" Lindsay said bitterly. _How dare he send me home—even Peri got more than a season!_ "What makes you think I can't do this?" she demanded, starting to cry again. The Doctor muttered something she couldn't hear to the console.

"Is it because I'm crying? I know, Companions don't cry. They'll scream, they'll run away, but no one cries on the TARDIS, is _that_ it?" The Doctor didn't know what to say, so he said nothing.

Lindsay slumped into a chair and rested her head in her hands. "I'm not—I haven't, I can do this. Just give me a chance. I—I need to breathe."

The TARDIS landed, and the Doctor opened the doors and looked outside. Satisfied that he'd reached the right place, he came back and squatted in front of Lindsay.

"It's all right," he said. "I won't stop you from breathing...and while you're breathing, go take a look at what I found for you." He gestured at the doors. She turned to look, and her mouth fell open.

The ground outside the TARDIS was rough and gray and pocked with meteor craters. Nearby on the horizon, a half-Earth was just rising.

* * *

They dimmed the lights in the control room and took tea by Earthlight. Lindsay had gone from hysterical tears to speechless awe at the moonscape; as far as the Doctor could tell, it was a step in the right direction.

At last she spoke, setting down half a biscuit and staring out at the Earth. "I can do this." The Doctor nodded; she didn't seem to notice.

"I have to. If I can do this, I can handle anything."

"What do you mean, anything?" asked the Doctor, now curious.

"I thought of this as a test for myself," Lindsay said. "And I can't help thinking I've failed," she said. She looked away from the view and ended up staring into her teacup. Something in her voice told the Doctor she was going to start crying again. "You don't send anyone home."

The Doctor thought about it. No, she really wasn't the worst person he'd traveled with (sixth self, are you listening?). And she wasn't the only one who cried—perhaps none of it had made it to her television programme—and maybe the Daleks were worth crying about, too. And who had he tried to send home, that she would know about, that she could think about and cheer up a bit? Ah yes. "Lindsay?" he said. She finally looked up at him, face red and tearstained. "I used to try sending people away, back when I was old and grumpy." He tried to say it lightheartedly, but she didn't react. "And do you know who I tried to send away? Ian Chesterton and Steven Taylor. Remember them?"

Finally, a bit of a smile. He smiled back. "You're far from a failure, Lindsay Adams. Let's have another adventure?" Her face brightened, and she nodded. "Right. Bathroom's down that hall, third door on the right; why don't you go wash up and then come back and tell me where you want to go next."

Lindsay hurried away smiling. The Doctor closed the TARDIS doors and started clearing away the tea things. When he spoke again, it was to the console.

"She's an odd one. She talks like she knows so much...so old sometimes, so young at others..." The TARDIS made a sighing noise. It had heard such things before, but it was unusual for the Doctor to be saying them about someone else.

* * *

Lindsay skipped back into the control room, feeling much better. "I think I figured it out," she said cheerfully.

"Figured what out, sorry?"

"Who 'she' is." Lindsay patted a panel on the TARDIS console. "At first I thought you were talking about someone you'd traveled with. Then I decided I was right." She grinned. "Anyway, why don't we let her choose where we go next? Not that she doesn't anyway."

The Doctor grinned back and started pushing buttons. "Right. Off to anywhere!"

* * *

NEXT EPISODE: THE EIGHTH COMING


End file.
